FreeVerse: A Very Scary Poem
by Jenners • 01/27/2010 • Poetry • 13 Comments
Hosted by Cara at Ooh…Books!
Today I want to share with you what I consider to be the scariest poem in the world. I remember reading this poem for the first time in high school, and it chilled me to the core. I didn’t fully understand everything in it (and probably still don’t), but the words and the imagery, especially that last line, gave me the willies. Reading it over again years later, I find it as disturbing and frightening as when I first read it.
The Second Coming
by William Butler Yeats
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
So what did you think? Did it disturb or frighten you a little? Had you read it before today?
Nice. Unless a missed the meaning of that peom he was saying the holy wars caused by a religeon(Aka christianity) are the true evil?
I liked the line the best where he said the best lack all conviction, while the worst are ful of pasionate intesity.
Mind you i don't really find it chiling. Probably becuase i miss al the little things in the poem.
Oh btw can you review a book called Empire In black And gold?
Within days after reading this last week, I began a book that had an excerpt from it quoted at the beginning! Funny how things like that happen….
I am a fan of Yeats, but have not read this particular poem before. I did find it pretty gloomy. It is kind of funny, too, since my mother and I were just discussing the book Left Behind, which I believe is about the end of the world? I do like Yeats' use of imagery in this poem and allegory.
I love the lines:
"the ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." Just reminded me so much of how life really is and how our realities do not often reflect our virtues or intentions.
Thanks for sharing this!
"The darkness drops again" – scary. Thanks for this Jenners, the first time I've felt truly inspired to view any poets works a little more.
Ah, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. This is such a classic poem – "the center cannot hold." This poem is so heavy with Biblical allusions and so disturbing. Like Revelations in the Bible, it has tons of imagery and is super vague. I suppose that's appropriate.
Makes me wonder what biblical references he is using, if any.
I do find this very haunting. I'm not familiar with Yeats, will have to read up on more of his works!
is that where the term slouching towards Bethlehem comes from, or is the poem referencing that term?
I've not read this one before. I felt it was a tad disturbing but probably more so since you warned us beforehand.
It's fitting given all the end of the world novels I have been reading lately.
Yes, a bit disturbing. I don't recall ever reading it before.
I'd love to know what was going on in his life when he wrote that one.
oh, we Irish tend to be a little dramatic and gloomy. The man just needs a nice cup of tea.
This is one of my favorite poems ever. I don't know how many times I've read it, or how many papers I've written on it over the years.
I love the image of the sphinx walking through the desert. Yeats was such a good imagist.
Yeats is my total favorite, and my favorite by him is "When You Are Old":
WHEN you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face among a crowd of stars.